Tuesday, May 5, 2015

22-April-2015: Collisions in two dimensions

Purpose - We will be determining if momentum and energy are conserved by rolling an object on to a stationary object causing a collision.


In a collision the momentum change of object 1 is equal to and opposite of the momentum change of object 2. That is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal to the momentum gained by object 2. In most collisions between two objects, one object slows down and loses momentum while the other object speeds up and gains momentum. If object 1 loses 75 units of momentum, then object 2 gains 75 units of momentum. Yet, the total momentum of the two objects is the same before the collision as it is after the collision. If our experiment goes accordingly to plan, we will show that the total momentum of the system is conserved.




Our formula will follow this equation on the right. 




Our set up will be very similar to what was show in the above picture. We will have a camera above the apparatus and the center ball stationary as we record another ball colliding with the center ball.


We will be doing this twice, one with both balls with the same mass and another with different masses. 

EXPT 1 - Balls equal mass


As logger pro records the video we will plot points for each balls movements.




As we are following along the video frame by frame and plotting each dot, logger pro will generate graphs for both balls. From the graphs we can determine the initial and final velocity for each component in the x and y direction.


The slopes give us our velocity that we will need to plug in our formula so that we can verify if momentum or energy is conserved. Above graph is the initial ball rolling to the stationary ball of equal mass before the collision.






Above image is the original mass ball we rolled to the stationary ball after the collision.



Above image is the stationary mass ball after the collision from the rolling ball.





Above image is the calculations for momentum in the x and y direction. If you look at the boxed values you can see that the final values are slightly less than the initial. That is telling us that, if our calculations are right, somewhere along the line we lost some momentum after the collision.




Above image is the calculations for energy in the x and y direction. The values that are box show us the initial and final energies. It is clear that some energy was lost after the collision.


EXPT 2 - Balls different mass




We will run the same experiment but this time the mass of the ball that is stationary at the center will have a lower mass than that of the ball we are rolling into the center ball.

We plot is point as we did before so that logger pro will generate graphs for us to determine the velocities of the x and y components.





The slopes give us our velocity that we will need to plug in our formula so that we can verify if momentum or energy is conserved. Above graph is the initial ball rolling to the stationary ball of lower mass before the collision.





Above image is the original mass ball we rolled to the stationary ball after the collision.






Above image is the stationary mass ball of lower mass than that colliding to it after the collision from the rolling ball.

Again from each of these graphs the slope gives us velocity.


Above image is the calculations for momentum in the x and y direction. If you look at the boxed values you can see that the final values are slightly less than the initial. That is telling us that, if our calculations are right, somewhere along the line we lost some momentum after the collision.




Above image is the calculations for energy in the x and y direction. The values that are box show us the initial and final energies. It is clear that some energy was lost after the collision.


Summary

For both experiments we can clearly see that in both momentum and energy the values shown indicate that neither momentum or energy is conserved, technically. If we take a step back and think about what is happening after the collision and some possible forces at play. The final values being less than the initial can be explained. Some reasoning for the errors that do not give us a perfect ideal conservation in our calculations can be a bit of friction. Our apparatus is designed to minimize friction but even on top of a glass plate friction can be a cause of error. The equipment is factor again. It was noted that the lens of the camera and the recording leave a type of fish bowl effect. When we went to plot the points for each frame of the balls movement we could of been viewing and plotting the dots wrong.
Lets say if we were in an ideal situation and our equipment was perfect in every measurement. We would have proven through our experiments that both momentum and energy are conserved. What that means is the initial energy thrusted into the other object would divide perfectly and both objects and their movements was equal that of the initial provided energy.


















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